1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sleep evaluation devices, and particularly relates to sleep evaluation devices that evaluate the state of a measurement subject's sleep in a non-invasive manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various conventional techniques have been disclosed with respect to devices for evaluating sleep.
For example, JP 2006-014813A discloses a technique, aimed at identifying symptoms of insomnia, that determines a sleep state from information such as breathing, body movement, heartbeats, and so on obtained from a mat-shaped pressure sensor, and creates a chronological sleep log.
In addition to insomnia, snoring is another sleep-related condition for which there is demand for relief. Snoring is problematic not only because of the discomfort it causes people sleeping in the same room, but also because it is said to involve more serious problems such as Sleep Apnea Syndrome.
With respect to the detection of snoring, JP 2006-167427A discloses a technique in which respiratory sounds are obtained during sleep, the obtained respiratory sounds are divided into a plurality of frequency blocks and determination values are detected for physical amounts in each block, and the person's respiratory sounds during sleep are identified as at least one of quiet breathing, snoring, and loud snoring based on the determination values.
However, performing analysis and so on on frequency blocks of obtained sound as disclosed in JP 2006-167427A requires an advanced level of processing, and thus comparatively high-performance information processing devices are required for devices that evaluate sleep in this manner. Accordingly, there is a problem in that there is an increase in the cost of such devices.